Car-door.



No. 688,007. v Patented Doc. 3, I90]. F. c. ROBINSON & T. WILLIAMS;

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(Application filed Mar. 30. 1901.) (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet I.

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CAR DOOR.

(Applieation filed Mar. 3O 1901.)

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Witne'aaeo 92. a. W4 M m: NORRIS wnzns 00.. PHOTO-LITMO" WASHW'GTOM maUNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK CLERK ROBINSON AND THOMAS \VILLIAMS, OF WASHINGTON, INDIANA;SAID ROBINSON ASSIGNOR TO SAID WILLIAMS.

CAR-DOOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 688,007, datedDecember 3, 1901.

Application filed March 30, 1901. Serial No. 53.703. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, FREDERICK CLERK ROBINSON and THOMAS WILLIAMs,citizens of the United States, residing at Washington, in the county ofDaviess and State of Indiana, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Car-Doors; and we do hereby declare the following to bea full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as willenable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and usethe same.

Our invention relates to sliding or swinging doors; and it consists ofcertain novel features of combination and construction of parts thepreferred form or materialization whereof will be fully described in thefollowing specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

The object of our invention is to provide reliably efficient meansdesigned, primarily, for use upon railway-cars, though it will beobvious that our invention, with but slight modification, may beutilized any and every- Where where it becomes desirable to reliablymount a heavy or other form of door and place the same completely underthe control of the operator, who will thus be enabled to easily open andclose the door. While, therefore, we shall confine our description andillustration principally to the mounting of a cardoor, and moreespecially for handling and controlling the usual sliding doors employedupon grain-shipping cars, yet other applications and uses may be readilymade of our invention, and we therefore deem it unnecessary tospecifically illustrate and describe other possible uses thereof.

The objects and advantages of our invention will be made fully apparentby reference to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is aperspective view showing a portion of the interior of an ordinaryfreightcar designed for shipping grain having the usual sliding doorsdisposed in guideways. Fig. 2 is a View of similar parts, in sideelevation, upon a reduced scale. Fig. 3 is a vertical section of Fig. 2on line 0o 00. Fig. 4 is a perspective detail View of a portion of thedoor-carrying devices, illustrating the preferred means of connectingsaid carrying de- Vices together and for readily disengaging eralfeatures of ourinvention and the cooperating accessories, numerals willbe employed, of which 1 designates the side of a grain-car which may beconstructed substantially in the usual or any preferred manner, which isprovided upon each side with an openingor door 2, V.

which opening is usually closed by the vertically-sliding doors 3 and4:, received by the guideways 5, whereby each door may be bodily raisedon a line with the ledge 6, and thus moved longitudinally to one side ofthe opening 2 when not required for closing said opening. It is common,therefore, to provide the foregoing construction, and it is for thepurpose of avoiding the necessity of lifting the doors 3 and 4 andmoving them bodily to one side of the opening that we have provided ourinvention, which, briefly stated, consists in means for grasping thedoors when raised vertically to the desired height and carrying themlaterally with respect to the opening and holding them untilagainrequired for use.

In carrying out our invention wemount at the desired point, preferablyat the upper edge of each of the side walls of the car, the form oftrack illustrated in Fig. 7, though that form of track shown in Fig. 4may be usedifdeemed preferable. The form of track illustrated in Fig. 7consists of a single piece of suitable heavy sheet metal bent to presentin cross-section the outline of the letter C, which, as will beobserved, comprises the vertical or' main body portion 7, the parallelhorizontally-disposed portions 8, and the in. weirdly-directed lips 9and 10, the former or lower lip constituting the track upon which thecurved carrying-wheels 11 are mounted, while the downwardly-disposedflange or lip 10 also cocperates with the wheels 11 by tak- -upon thelip 9.

. ing into the groove thereon, and thereby hold said wheel againstoutward movement, though .permit said Wheel to travel freely For each ofthe doors 3 and 4 I providea pair of carrying-wheels, as indicated bythe numeral 11, said wheels being properly connected together by thecouplingrod 12, each end of said rod being bifurcated, asindicated bythe nu meral 13,a branch of said bifurcation resting upon either side ofthe wheel and receiving a suitable axle or journal, which extendsthrough the wheel, and thus affords a desirable bearing therefor.Mounted upon the coupling-rod 12 are the hanger-arms 14, which extenddownward to a proper point to engage the upper edge of one of the doors3 and 4 and sustain said door above or out of contact with the ledge 6,whereby thedoor may be freely moved longitudinallyaway from the opening2 when it is desired to open or close the car. The hanger-arms arepreferably connected together, as by the link section 15, secured inposition in any preferred way, the lower ends of the arms upon theirinner sides being provided with the hook members 16 and also with thecooperating lip 17, disposed immediately above the hook-section 16, theoffice of said lip being to more securely hold the door in place andprevent undue upward movement thereof. .The arms 14 may also be providedwith the preferably integral members 18, designed to serve as stopswhich will limit or circumscribe the outward movement of the lower orfree ends of said arms, inasmuch as the members 18 will be in positionto engage a contiguous part of the car or the upper lip 10, as will beobvious by reference to the drawings. The carrier-wheels thus mountedand equipped with necessary accessories may be easily coupled togetherby the latch1-9, pivotally connected to one of said 7 carriers andextending into engagement with a suitablelug 20 upon the other carrier,said lug being designed to be received by a notch or recess 21 upon thelatch 19. The latch is pivotally connected, as indicated by the numeral22, either directly to the journal of one of the carriers or to asuitable and contiguous part of the frame, and the free end of saidlatch is held against moving downward out of the horizontal position bythe extended end 23 engaging the lug 24, as will be clearly apparent byreference to Fig. 1 of the drawlngs.

It will be obvious that the arms 14 may be variously constructed withoutimpairing the efficiency thereof-as, for instance, in Figs. 5 and 6 wehave illustrated other constructions which may be adopted.

In Fig. 5 a single piece of suitable strapiron is properly bent, asindicated by the numeral 25, to form ahook memberdesigned to serve thesame purpose as the hook 16, just described, and take into the opening26 provided in the upper edge of one of the doors 3 or 4, suitableguiding-flanges 27 being provided for the purpose of directing the hookinto said opening, so that it will engage the bar or flange 28, and thusenable the door to be readily lifted into the desired position.

After the hook 25 is formed the vertical mem ber 29 is provided, whichmember is bent outward, as indicated by the numeral 30, to enable' thesame to be extended around the couplingrod 12, a, complementing bend 31being also formed in said material, whereby the rod may be completelyencircled, the lowerend of the strap-iron being shaped to form themember 32, lying substantially parallel with the member 29 and designedto prevent the door from casually dropping off the hook 25, it beingunderstood that the entire hangerarm thus provided may be readilysecured upon the coupling-rod 12, as by the bolt 33.

In Fig. 6 we have illustrated another construction for the door-carryingarm, wherein it will be observed that a body portion or main section isformed of sheet metal properly bent to form the member 34, correspondingin function to the member 32, the upper end of which is bent intoconnection with the main or-body portion 35, two recesses, as indicatedby the numerals 36 and 37, being formed to respectively engage the lowerand upper edges of a fixed guideway or track, the entire device beingdesigned to slide upon said track, entirely dispensing with carrying-Wheels, as is obvious. The carrying-arm proper, 38, designed to engageone of the doors 3 or 4, is pivotally connected to the body portion 35by means of the cars 39, the lower end of said arm being provided withthe hook 40, while the upper end of the arm is bent inward, .asindicated by the numeral 41, said inwardly-directed extension beingdesigned to take into an aperture 42, formed in the body member 35 at acontiguous point. The object in providing the aperture 42 is to enablethe upper end of the arm to be directed inward when it becomes desirableto unhook the arm from engagement with the door, this play of the armbeing requisite to insure that said portion may be facilitated.

It will be understood that our invention may be used either for insideor outside doors upon railway-cars and upon all varieties of buildingsand also for the support of gates, &c., and while we havev described thepreferred construction and combination of parts which may be adopted itwill be understood that the substantial equivalent thereof iscomprehended by us in this application, and we do not wish to beconfined strictly to the exact showing herein presented. 4

The manner of using our invention as illustrated in Fig. 1 may be statedto be as follows: When it is desired to move, for instance, the door 3longitudinally out of the way, one of the carriers is drawn so as to bedirectly over the opening 2 and in such position as the arms of saidcarrier will be directly over or in registration with the openings 26,when the door may be manuallyelevated until the cross-bar or flange 28is engaged by the hook 16, the simple operation of elevating the doorbeing all that is required to effect such cooperation. The weight of thedoor is now disposed upon said hooks, and the carrier may very readilybe moved to one side, carrying with it said door and disposing itentirely away from the opening 2, when the other carrier may be broughtover said opening and the lower door raised into engagement with thehooks upon the depending arms of the carrier and the door in like mannermoved to the other side of the opening from that occupied bythe door 3.IVhen it is desired to again place the doors in a closed position ordrop them in the guideways 5, either door, 7 as preferred, may bebrought in such position as to be received by the guideways, when anoutward pull upon the link 15 will disengage the hook 16 and permit thedoor to drop downward in position, the other door being similarlydisengaged when in a proper position.

It will be understood that a proper checking-block or other device maybe disposed at each end of the tracks, and also any suitable securingdevice, as a hook, may be provided, which will hold the carrier in placeat the end of the track when not required for use. The latch 19 isdisposed in a horizontal plane, and as it is provided with a curved endit will readily ride over the lug or extended journal 20, causing saidlug to be received by the recesses 21, and thus enable the two carriersto be easily coupled together by simply moving one toward the other, asis obvious.

The carrierarms may be readily modified in construction, so as to besuitable for use upon the outside doors of a car, by dispensing with thehooks and lips 16 and 17, respectively, and bolting the arms directly tothe doors. Other slight modifications will readily adapt our inventionfor use in almost any situation, and we therefore deem it unnecessary tospecifically set forth such modifications. v

Having thus described the construction and manner of using our improveddoor-carrying apparatus, further reference to the details is deemedunnecessary.

What we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- 1. Ina carrier for car-doors or the like, a suitable track-section;carrying-wheels cooperating with said track; a coupling-shaft havingbifurcated ends to receive said wheels; arms depending from said shaftand provided with the hook members 16 and lips 17, in combination withthe doors 3 and 4:, having openings and guideways to respectivelyreceive and direct said hooks, all substantially as specified and forthe purpose set forth.

2. In carriersfor car-doors or the like, a track-section formed of heavysheet metal bent to form the members 7, 8, 9 and 10; suitable means tosecure said track-section in place, in combination with carrying-wheelshaving grooves to receive the members 9 and 10 whereby said wheels willbeheld against casual displacement; a coupling-rod operativelyconnecting the carrying-wheels; apair of arms depending from said rodeach being provided with a hook member; a door having an opening 26designed to cooperate with said hook member and means to prevent thedoor from casually slipping 01f of said hook, all substantially asspecified and for the purpose set forth.

3. The herein-described carrier for doors comprising a track-section;carrying-wheels cooperating with said track-section; means tooperatively connect said carrying-wheels; depending arms; hook membersformed on the free ends of said arms; doors having openings 26 and theflange 28 adapted to cooperate with said hooks; and additional means toprevent the doors from casually slipping oif of the hooks, allsubstantially as specified and for the purpose set forth.

4. In a carrier for doors, the combination with the door havingapertures near its upper edge of a carrier proper having suitabletraction-wheels; means to operatively connect said wheels and a pair ofswinging depending arms designed to engage the apertures in said doors,all substantially as specified and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of twowitnesses.

FREDERICK CLERK ROBINSON. THOMAS WILLIAMS. Witnesses:

GEORGE W. GoWAN, JOHN B. HART.

